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Cannabidiol Recovers Dopaminergic Neuronal Damage Induced by Reserpine or α-synuclein in Caenorhabditis elegans

By March 25, 2023March 28th, 2023No Comments

. 2023 Mar 25.

doi: 10.1007/s11064-023-03905-z.

Online ahead of print.
Erika da Cruz Guedes 1, Adolfo Garcia Erustes 1, Anderson H F F Leão 1, César Alves Carneiro 1, Vanessa C Abílio 1 2, Antonio W Zuardi 2 3, Jaime Eduardo C Hallak 2 3, José Alexandre Crippa 2 3, Claudia Bincoletto 1, Soraya S Smaili 1, Patrícia Reckziegel 4, Gustavo J S Pereira 5
Affiliations 

Abstract

Progressive neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson Disease (PD) lack curative or long-term treatments. At the same time, the increase of the worldwide elderly population and, consequently, the extension in the prevalence of age-related diseases have promoted research interest in neurodegenerative disorders. Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living nematode widely used as an animal model in studies of human diseases. Here we evaluated cannabidiol (CBD) as a possible neuroprotective compound in PD using the C. elegans models exposed to reserpine. Our results demonstrated that CBD reversed the reserpine-induced locomotor alterations and this response was independent of the NPR-19 receptors, an orthologous receptor for central cannabinoid receptor type 1. Morphological alterations of cephalic sensilla (CEP) dopaminergic neurons indicated that CBD also protects neurons from reserpine-induced degeneration. That is, CBD attenuates the reserpine-induced increase of worms with shrunken soma and dendrites loss, increasing the number of worms with intact CEP neurons. Finally, we found that CBD also reduced ROS formation and α-syn protein accumulation in mutant worms. Our findings collectively provide new evidence that CBD acts as neuroprotector in dopaminergic neurons, reducing neurotoxicity and α-syn accumulation highlighting its potential in the treatment of PD.

Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans, Cannabidiol, Parkinson Disease

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